Judaism Response Paper

There is no definite way to describe Judaism. Judaism can be a religion, a culture, a race, and/or something else. It is very challenging to prove or disprove each definition of Judaism listed above, since Judaism is comprised of so many different aspects. If Judaism must be described in one specific way, however, then the most accurate way to define Judaism would be a race.
People who are Jews in a racial point of view instead of a religious or cultural view are “born-to-be” Jews. They are not given much choice because if their mothers are Jewish, then they are Jewish as well. These Jews do not necessarily have a choice to pick of which race their mothers are. On the other hand, Jews who use Judaism as a religion choose to believe in such god and may become a “Non-Jew” later in the future. Also Jews who use Judaism as a culture choose to accept cultures around them, and may acquire other cultures depending on different environment and experiences. Unlike the religious Jews or the cultural Jews, the “racial” Jews cannot change their race by choice; therefore, it is most definite to claim that Judaism is a race. In addition to how race cannot change by choice, Judaism as a race becomes more significant as the forms of Judaism becomes more radical. All different religious levels of Judaism require Jews’ basic beliefs in God (YHWH), but the orthodox Jews only allow Jews who are racially Jews. In other words, among all the Jews (religious Jews) who basically have similar beliefs and cultures, only the Jews (whose mothers are Jews) are allowed to this orthodox form of Judaism. Thus, Judaism as a race is like a last key to complete many aspects of Judaism.